When I was in the shower this morning, I thought I would write to you today about self-employment and how it is your challenge 365 days of the year. Then I realised that was a bit dark for me, the Queen of Positive Thinking. So I deliberately re-framed it. Self-employment is your opportunity 365 days of the year. I was thinking back over my 2014 and one of the highlights was taking part in the 30 Day Challenge in June, as their coach. 30 Day challenges are a high-energy way to kickstart a project, get you into action and get you thinking about leaving […]

Yesterday I went to the cinema, to see Chef. It was great, and I thoroughly recommend it if you like fun and food and feelgood, sexy and sizzle. And driving across America. And redemption. And great Latin music. It’s been too long since my last US road trip; that country was made for driving across, all those empty roads. And great food. And laid back fun. While I was gone, someone I don’t yet know (but who is on my mailing list) turned up at my website and booked herself in for some summer coaching. This is great because I […]

Are you a tortured genius? Do you struggle for your art? What’s your talent and do you share it with us, your audience? Many of my clients and colleagues who are artists, writers and creators put themselves through hell before they bring anything to market, if they bring anything at all to the attention of their waiting public. I have a sneaking regard for their angst, but unfortunately I am just not that much of a drama queen. It would be more dramatic and interesting if I were, and a better PR story for sure, and I suspect my “art” would […]

Delegates in the 30DC have been asking me for recommendations for platforms and other ways of delivering online courses or sequential content. Lots of options. Here’s just a few: JigsawBox – created by Nicola Bird for coaches, but don’t let that stop you. Let your imagination run wild. Udemy – your place to learn real world skills online. And teach too, of course. DailyOm – specialising in Mind Body Spirit content, pay what you want (love this one) A series of emails delivered via your list manager, e.g. Mailchimp, Aweber, 1ShoppingCart, Infusionsoft et al. A membership plug-in e.g. Wishlist Member on […]

Questions about blogging have come thick and fast during the 30DC. Here’s a typical one: What techniques can I apply to get me to write blog posts for my new website which needs a bit of work doing to it? I wonder whether that is what makes me reluctant to do anything on it. Here are my thoughts: Do you like writing, for starters? If not, find another route to market – perhaps audio, maybe video, how about pictures? If you do like writing, then just do one. Then another. Then another. Enjoy yourself. [Tweet “Decide how many blog posts […]

Reading through the 30DC questions, some write in for a kick and others for a cuddle. I am always happy to supply either – or both! Let’s talk about cuddling first. I trained once (and briefly) to teach shorthand. I love Pitman shorthand, it is gorgeous and beautiful in every way and I used to be able to take dictation at 120 words a minute, way back in the Seventies. I regret I have lost this skill. I do still use the odd bit now and again, but I am so rusty its quicker to write in longhand. I like […]

One of my 30DC clients tells me she has an Etsy shop but has never sold a thing on there. She doesn’t know what to do and is considering finding a PR agency for her creations, rather than looking for shops and galleries and asks what I think. Gorgeous, that’s what I think! Permission to ramble on about marketing… Nothing sells itself, not to begin with anyway. I only do two things. I coach my clients and, when I’m not doing that, I am marketing so that I may have clients to coach. And vice versa. Coach. Market. Market. Coach. […]

How do you use time? And how do you focus on what you want to achieve today and every day? Because I am 59 years old, I first went to work in the Seventies when working conditions were pretty formal and uptight. This meant not much fun and no distractions. Oh, and no computers or mobile phones. And certainly no music while we were working. Photocopies were wet. A fax took twenty minutes to get to London from Oxford (!) and adding machines ruled the day before the invention of the calculator. I’m a Luddite in part of my soul; […]

People will pay you for what you are good at. People will pay for your expertise, industry, labour, diligence, skills and talents. People will pay you to do the things they don’t want to do. People will pay you, period. Market yourself as a doer of things that others don’t want to do or can’t. This is a viable business model, this is what all businesses are. I was an accountant for twenty years on precisely this basis, good at things others were not. The same could be said for my gardener, my hairdresser, my caterer, my party planner, my […]

Writers write. That’s what I teach my writery clients. It’s tough love. Write every day and then you may call yourself a writer. Challenge yourself to write every day. Find an extra hour or 30 minutes or something that you will commit to every day and write somewhere, it doesn’t really matter where. Blog Newsletter Journal Twitter Facebook 750words.com Website Back of envelope Notebook Napkin Blackboard The list is endless. Commit to a daily writing habit, er… that’s every day until you die, And every day you succeed in that, no matter how good or bad it is, you are […]